Hats off to the BBC for their Olympic coverage

Two weeks ago in these pages, Brian Barwick made reference to the multi-screen coverage offered by the BBC for the Olympics.

For me, that will be the legacy from the last fortnight - the wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling coverage of sport that was made available on the red button and from 450 upwards on my remote control.

Probably including the sleep deprivation and abuse of unhealthy snacks, I’ve felt a bit like a security guard during The Games, idly flicking from channel to channel, vigilantly monitoring the relentless goings on at Olympic Incorporated.

Magic Mo-ment: Mo Farah crosses the line to win his second Olympic gold

But rather than staring blankly at a series of empty corridors and darkened offices, I was watching people racing boats on their bikes along a towpath in Eton, chunky Italian fellows hitting bullseyes the size of a compact disc on the outfield at Lord's and an empty boxing ring, lit up like a disco, waiting patiently for its next bout. Particularly compelling as a flickering flame, that one.

The plus 450s – often pure live feeds not necessarily with any formal commentary - also provided my two favourite clandestine insights into the Olympics. It was on 466 one Monday that I sat gripped for easily half an hour watching a female Korean fencer doing, well, nothing. I watched as, in complete silence, she sat at the edge of the fencing piste, head bowed in protest at a decision - her sword dipped towards the deep blue carpet as if she were quietly fishing on a riverbank - before the two commentators burst breathlessly back on air having rushed around the building to find out what had been going on. It was genuinely compelling drama from the art house school of film making.

Then, on Thursday morning, there was somewhat more comical and animated Peeping Tom entertainment to be had as a prying camera watched the lady high jumpers trying to work out a cute way of all getting through to the next round. In amongst them, clipboard in hand, blinking up at the tall trees of athletic talent that was surrounding him like Don Estelle trying to explain himself to Windsor Davies in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum, was a little cockney official desperately trying to steer the girls into a decision. Smiling through gritted teeth, his voice starting to rise through the octaves with polite impatience, ‘all I need you to say is, jump or pass?’ is what he continually implored.

Which is just what they did. Finally. He may need an even longer lie down than Lord Coe after that!

Someone clearly having a great Games
was John McEnroe. Obviously his tennis insight was as razor sharp as
ever - although Ian Thorpe and Michael Johnson were surely the star
pundits of the event – but he was also certainly right up there for his
pure entertainment value. Courtside next to Sue Barker with both Andy
Murray and Roger Federer he was priceless, but he also seemed to pop up
everywhere else, too, like Charlie clutching the golden ticket to the
chocolate factory. And whenever he appeared on screen – like inside the
stadium just minutes before the 100 metres final, or late at night on
the sofa alongside Olga Korbut – he played it like a fan, and was asking
as many questions as he answered, never once not looking like he was
having the time of his life.

Stars of the show: John Inverdale (left) and Michael Johnson (second right)

However,
the most fun across all of the TV coverage seemed to be being had – and
therefore translated to us at home – by Clare Balding and Mark Foster
in the pool, John Inverdale with his blue chip athletes inside the
arena, and Gabby Logan with her late night review from the BBC’s main
Olympic Park studio.

This was the show that had time to
reflect properly on the day, allow the guests to really relax, oblige
Gabby to rock out to Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’ on a regular basis, and
boast a pure Blue Peter moment involving sticky backed arrows and a
picture of Big Ben.

It
was the aforementioned Inverdale who christened the two men who were
surely the best commentary team of the Games ‘Ant and Dec’ - more
formally known as Steve Cram and Brendan Foster. With the help of the
exploits of Mo Farah, these two became the genuine cheerleaders for the
Games – their ongoing sense of disbelief at quite how exciting it all
was really capturing the nation’s zeitgeist.

This sense of enthusiasm unbounded had
its icing put on the cake when – in a candid camera moment usually
reserved exclusively for the posh lot in the studio – we saw some sneaky
shots of the pair bring Mo home for his second gold. Cram was on his
feet, screaming into his microphone, while his mate Foster basically
gave up the day job and just threw his arms into the air.

Unbelievable: Bert Le Clos (left) won many admirers after an impromptu interview with Clare Balding (right)

During that race’s live commentary, Cram, his voice nearly shot with emotion, said ‘my words cannot do justice to how I feel’ while Foster added he thought it ‘the moment in the history of British athletics’, and they were still boozed up on that moment as they waxed lyrical about the whole Games on Sunday morning, as the marathon men effectively did a victory lap of 2012’s London home.

I am still smarting at the lack of graphic information and action replays the world feed gave the host broadcasters (probably not as much as its major victims though, cycle men Hugh Porter and Chris Boardman) and remain appalled at the crass manner in which the young Jamaican sprinter Warren Weir was dragged into an interview whilst trying to observe the Kenyan national anthem with his colleagues.

But when you’ve just seen Mo Farah partying at the closing ceremony in a blue bowler hat with a light bulb on it, frankly it feels just futile and wrong not to get caught up in the good vibes that these games have clearly delivered to us all through the ether.